DGN: Emergent Behaviors spawned from - Re: [MUD-Dev]SOC:Willcompany sanctioned cheating hurt theMMOcommunity?

[Vincent Archer]

According to cruise at casual-tempest.net:

> high-end raids? Why don't more games have smaller, easier, shorter
> versions for lower levels? If the answer is because the only
> reason for

EQ2 has it. There's several "raidable" named mobs that require
multigroups to defeat. Or a single group several levels higher than
intended.

The general problem of raid design is that raids occur in the middle
of a progression. It can be a level progression, or it can be an
item progression.

That's the problem of the raid game. Sooner or later, you outgrow
them.  Usually, outgrowing them by equipment occurs at a fixed rate
(the boss respawn), and the designers have an expansion ready to
launch by the time the best players have finally outgrown the
highest raid.

But if you can outgrow them by levelling, you'll outgrow them faster
than by equipment progression. What's even worse, the different
people in your raid are going to have progressed at different rate,
and your raid is going to break up.

And despite all efforts to the contrary, raiding is immensely more
enjoyable when done with people you do know and play with.

This is why placing the raiding game at the end of level progression
makes more sense. That's the "meeting point" of all characters. They
ascend to the highest level, and they stay there. If you have a crew
of 30 raiders one day, next month, they're going to be there still.
You won't have 10 people having gained 10 levels, and being able to
do the raid on their own, without the help of the rest.

  (it's a variant of the "grouping problem" that occurs when you
  have a bunch of friends levelling at their own rates. Most game
  mechanics tend to break your group apart)

--
	Vincent Archer			Email:	archer at frmug.org

All men are mortal.  Socrates was mortal.  Therefore, all men are Socrates.
							(Woody Allen)
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